i heard dr. bookbinder tell us that the health commission was on the verge of what i hope was in this building we're going to be able to do, we from the health commission are extremely proud that our city has been able to be at the forefront on a national and world level. i congratulate everybody. i thank president obama. i thank all of our federal, state, and local officials who have continued to support the effort of the health department of our private practitioners, of all those who are here in this final effort to end the epidemic of aids. thank you very much. (applause) >> thank you. next i'm going to introduce supervisor scott weaner from district 8 who is going to -- always supported the work that we've done here. and thank you for coming.

(applause) >> thank you, thank you. and i want to wish a very happy birthday to my colleague supervisor david campos. (applause) >> it seems like just yesterday that we were here and we had our hard hats on, and we were breaking the wall there when some friends of mine saw the photos, they told me i should not be wearing a hard hat. [laughter] >> it was a learning experience. so, you know, 30 years ago san francisco, we had to start going it alone. we had the epidemic break out here and we weren't getting a lot of support from the federal government and the state government. and this city did what we often do here. we pulled together and we got it done. and we took care of our community and we developed innovative ways for prevention and for treatment and for

making sure that people living with the disease had access to services. and fast forward 30 years, and this city continues to lead. and continues to be innovative and continues to be a beacon frankly to the rest of the world in terms of addressing the epidemic. and i wrote -- mayor lee mentioned it before, but i really want to stress how important it was when we lost $7 million in federal money in prevention and care money. and let me tell you, i remember supervisor campos and i sitting down and looking at each other, what are we going to do? this is a disaster. and we went and spoke with the mayor. mayor lee didn't even blink, and he restored in his budget all of that money. some mayors may have restored half of it and let the board scramble to find cuts or other readjustments to make up for the rest of it and mayor lee did 100% no game. mr. mayor, we are eternally grateful for that. (applause)

>> and i think this, what we're doing today, is also incredibly important because for those of us who were there when it wasn't such a foregone conclusion that we were going to be able to come out of this epidemic and even see the light at the end of the tunnel, there are a lot of young people who weren't there. and who maybe don't understand what it was like and what can happen and maybe don't always take it as seriously as we need to take it in terms of prevention. and when i came out in 1990 as a 20-year old, one of the first things i did, i went out to the bars of my lesbian cousin who was 14 years older and her partner, they said to me, you really need to start out with gay guys. you shouldn't just be hanging out with lesbians.

my cousin's partner said to me, you know, i really wanted to bring out some of my gay guy friends tonight, but they're all dead. for me as a 20-year old, that was permanently seared in my memory. you know, i've been careful ever since. but for a lot of younger guys in particular, didn't necessarily go through that. but this is so incredibly important that we continue to lead the way in terms of prevention and education and research because we can beat this disease and i know we're going to. so, congratulations, everyone. (applause) >> i'm pleased to introduce from district 9 supervisor david campos. (applause) >> thank you very much. i'll be very brief, and this is definitely a great birthday present. you know, i've known scott weaner for many years. we went to law school together,

and i think something he said about our youth today is something that is very, very important for us to remember. you know, as youth, you always have the concept of the invincibility of youth and we've all had that. you're a young person, you don't think that anything can happen to you. but the reality is that for folks who are part of this newer generation, they didn't go through that. and i think it's important for us to underscore the severity of this disease, of this illness, and it's still des mating many communities. and it is especially low-income communities, communities of color, you have gay african-american men, latino men infected on a daily basis. people forget we still have people dying of aids. i had a close friend of mine who recently passed away of aids, michael goldstein, and he was an advocate for hiv prevention for finding a cure for hiv.

and you can think of so many michael goldsteins. and dr. colfax and other people mentioned that. their memory lives on. and i think that we owe it to them to continue to recommit ourselves, rededicate ourselves to making sure that we prevent the spread of this disease, and that we do find a cure for this disease. and i just think about, you know, the possibilities with this building. this could well be the place where we do find a cure for aids. and if it's going to happen anywhere, why wouldn't it happen in san francisco? we have always led the way on so many different things. you know, the city of harvey milk is a city that has always recognized the dignity and humanity of every person and it's in line with that spirit that we are here today. and i do want to thank our mayor because as supervisor weaner noted, when the $7 million of funding was cut, even though we were lucky that for so many years leader pelosi

protected that, the mayor did not blink. the mayor wasn't even a question. and that's the beauty of san francisco. that when it comes to these issues, making sure that we take care of our own, that those questions are no-brainers for us. that is the san francisco way. so, i am very excited. i look forward to seeing the beautiful building, the gay man in me wants to see the design what it looks like inside. [laughter] >> so, let's get this going. thank you very much. (applause) >> thank you. i want to say that this has been a collaborative effort on so many levels. and it's been a collaborative effort in the city as well. i want to next introduce mohammed nuru director of public works who was instrumental in helping us launch this project. (applause) >> thank you. i'll keep it brief. i just want to say thank you to the department of public health for being a great partner with dpw.

we've had a good opportunity to be able to renovate many of our health centers. we are building the new hospital and today this very, very great project. the project from dpw, we provided architectural design. we provided engineering and construction management. and i'd like to thank the team that worked on the project real quick, the project's architect, lamont and banito, please give them a hand. (applause) >> from the engineering james ing and ray louie, give them a hand. (applause) >> and for construction administration jose gordato. (applause) >> and, of course, from the public health side, mark primo from dpw, [speaker not understood] who both led these projects. a little quick note about the project itself, the building is

over 100 years old. and while all this work was going on, nobody in the building and all the people who work here, they were not disrutctionved. they were able to continue working. * disrupted and as you heard we are 70% complete and very, very happy to be here for this grand opening. and as we heard from all the speeches today, it will be a world renowned center and public works is happy to be part of that. thank you very much. (applause) >> so, none of this could have happened without the support of the public health department. we are fortunate to be working under dr. thomas argon who heads up the population public health unit. we are led by barbara garcia who is also the principal investigator of this project and i'm going to turn it to her. clap lap >> okay. as supervisor campos said, he

can't wait to get inside. one of the things about this grant, the face of staff is usually a grant with research. it is either study participants or services. but this is a little different one. we were the only health department in the country to receive this. most of this went to universities. one, we didn't have as big overhead as universities do. two, we have a lot of experience in doing building. and, so, we really had to work at making sure nobody got disrupted. i do believe i have a big thank you to real estate because i think we did give them i understand general election a couple times out there. -- indigestion i want to thank them. i see win of the employees who resigned as a retiree, he was instrumentsal. (applause) >> this took space planning and trying to figure out space and it's all you know in san

francisco, space can be a conflicting process. i think this worked really well. mark primo consulting with us on all our capital projects and departments. martin who provided a lot of leadership in this area. [cheering and applauding] >> and now that everybody is clapping, let's do the ribbon cutting and get inside. [laughter] >> okay. we're going to now do our ribbon cutting and then we're going to invite everybody in to tour the facility to get some hot coffee or tea, warm up, and some snacks. and if we could have the mayor and barbara come up and all of our other esteemed guests.

>> 4, 3, 2, 1. [cheering and applauding]

>> thank you, everyone, for coming. i welcome to the opening of scoots san francisco network. [applause]. >> thanks. today, we are opening our beta program to the san francisco public and with that, we are opening the world's first network of shared electric scooters. [applause]. >> there we go, we're back, okay, so before i tell you about our s*frs for san francisco, i want to introduce someone who has already made san francisco an even better place to live, mayor ed lee. there are two things about the mayor's work and his administration that are

particularly important to scoot, the first is that mayor lee is working hard to make this city an even better place to start and grow a new business, and second, he's been a toothless support of electric vehicles to improve san francisco's environment and the global environment as a whole so please welcome mayor ed lee. >> michael, matt, congratulations to scoot, yes. scoot and san francisco, well, let me first of all put this in some little perspective that i know, i know that we just announced last week, eb week in san francisco to the delight of so many people who want to just have modes of transportation, multiple modes of transportation in a city that are also environmentally friendly and to contribute that reducing our fossil fuels, we are in san francisco world citizens after all and i know it's exciting for ed risken,

our mta manager, he and i were excited to talk about different modes of transportation as we create all these exciting events to come to san francisco. i know it's exciting for board president david chiu, we tried to put pods for car sharing in neighborhoods on public streets and began in russian hill on his district, he's a vibrant, vibrant avid supporter of car sharing as i have been, i know ed riskens, well at the hub, knowing that that's an incubator for great ideas came the idea of scooter san francisco and the scooter network, and it's the latest contribution to an ongoing conversation that board

president chiu are having in this society, it really is when you come to automobile and or multiple modes of transportation sharing, scooter sharing is the latest contribution for people having access in our economy rather than just offered ownership and to me, that's really what wha* the shared economy is about and this great incubating idea of scooter sharing is wonderfulfinger these are all electric, you can power this up on 18 cents worth of power as compared to what gasoline prices are. it takes, if you want to go around the city at 30 miles an hour, it will be less than half of the power of a toaster. it's equivalent to 850 miles a gallon to be on one of these electric scooters. i think it's safe, obviously

we're going train people in the right way to abide but all the traffic regulations that we have, but as i sit in my car on days where i have to wait and 7, watch these scooters go by, it's kind of like where am i and what am i doing and can i contribute even more, so it's exciting to see this happen in san francisco, to see its launch, it's exciting that it's an idea that incubated out of the hub, it's exciting to not only see that it's fun for people to get around, to be more efficient and to kind of stralgts the lanes, but it's exciting to know it contributes so much of the goals of this city, the goals that i know our department environment is leading the effort and our city is leading the effort, the board of supervisors working

with my office to show case every opportunity we can to have alternative modes, and getting off of oil, it's going to be explained to you in simple terms how you get on these things but i'm so excited already, matt, or mike, that i am presenting to you my personal membership to the scooter network. alright. [applause]. >> there you go, thank you very much for starting here. >> thank you, mayor lee, this is a huge vote of confidence, we're happy to have your support. i would also like to introduce another leader of our city who is a fellow two-wheel rider, board president david chiu is a dedicated bike commuter, he knows how to share the streets of san francisco with different modes of transportation, he's a tireless advocate for improving the transportation option sos we're happy, david to have you

here supporting us in the opening of our public beta. >> good morning, is everyone ready to scoot? alright, thank you, michael, i am really excited to be part of this announcement for three reasons, first of all, san francisco, we need to be the leader in how we fight congestion, at this moment, we are the number 2 city in the country when it comes to congestion beside l.a., we have some serious issues we need to tackle and the neighborhoods we live in are the densest neighborhoods in the east coast, in the district, i have the densest neighborhoods in the city where one out of three residents do not own a car and as someone who doesn't own a car, two of my favorite modes of transit are car sharing and my bicycle, car sharing because it's convenient not to own a car and my bicycle because

it's easy to park, scoot allows you to pick up a bike when you need it but leave it and park it in ways that are easy and i want to thank michael and his team at scoot for innovating this, i'm excited about this for a second reason, we are the city of innovations and where great ideas start and continue, and as someone who ran a tech company, i'm excited that we have the best entrepreneurs, thinking about how the take a great idea and sell it to the rest of the world, the third reason i'm excited has to do something, and i'm going to call out to the chinese press that are here, this is an idea that came from michael's experience in china, he saw on the streets of cities he visited scooters everywhere, i can tell you as a kid of immigrants, every time i visit taiwan, i don't get into the back of a car, i get on to a

scooter, this is house people travel in densely populated cities, this is to bring a practice in parts of the world that even more dense than what we have here in san francisco and as american cities grow and become more populated, we're in that forefront to do it in a way that's safe, easy and economical and ensure that we are continuing to innovate our 21st century city, thank you for being here, i look forward the scooting with you on the roads. >> thank you, supervisor chiu, the transportation authority makes all modes of transportation possible in san francisco, and sfmta garage is one of our corner stone location partners for the launch of our public data, we're very happy to have director of the sfmta ed risken here to say a couple of words at our launch.

er >> thank you and good morning, as the city's transportation director, i have the privilege of managing the mta which is the agency in san francisco responsible for implementing the city's transit first policy. in order to implement that policy, there's two key things we need, we need strong leadership and innovation and what we're seeing today is the manifestation of just that in san francisco. what we need to do as the government and the transportation agency is make sure there are good choices available to people in terms of how they get around san francisco. we want people to feel like they don't need to get in their car, they don't want to get in their car, maybe like supervisor chiu and i, they don't own a car because there are other good options for them to get around san francisco and there are ways they can get around that aren't going to clog our streets with traffic or fill our air with pollution, and i think scoot represents just one of those options and

we're very happy to welcome them to san francisco, we're happy to do our small part in facilitating their launch here, i want to thank our director of off street parking manages all the mta parking garages and lots, we want to be through the management of those lots supportive of better ways to move around san francisco, cleaner ways to move around san francisco, so congratulations on your public launch, i look forward to seeing these red vehicles scooting around our streets safely and efficiently. thanks. [applause]. >> thank you, director. scoot isn't just a better way to get around the city, when we started scoot, we believed that giving people an alternative to driving could have huge benefits for the local and global environment, we're dieted that mel knee muter, the director of the san francisco department of the environment is here with us in our opening

of public beta in san francisco. >> good morning, everyone, it is an honor to be here for scoot's public announcement. this really does have great promise for helping to reduce carbon emissions in the city and county of san francisco. as some of you may know, about 40% of our carbon emissions in the city come from cars and trucks so we need to find alternatives for getting people out of their fossil fuel powered cars, this is going to be a great option for residences and businesses in san francisco to find an al -- an tern t*if, we're rolling out the electric vehicle infrastructure for cars so this is another electric vehicle option that we're happy to support. we also implement the commuter benefits program and help employers provide options to their employees for getting out of their cars, we're happy to add scoot and electric plug in

scooters for people to community in the city and county of san francisco, so i'm here to be in support, we look forward to expanding the options for individuals and residents and businesses in the city to help protect the environment. thank you very much. [applause]. >> thank you, director nut nut t*er, we are so lucky to be launching scoot in san francisco. this city has everything that we could hope for, san franciscans are the early adopters, they care about living healthier lifestyles and making the planet safer, and in our increasingly accelerated economy where every minute counts, they don't want to be waiting around for someone to pick them up and circling for parking, they want an option that's faster and more affordable and more convenient and graenbacker greener and as we can see, our city's

leadership feels the same way. we are today opening the world's first network of shared electric scooters that you can activate with your smart phone and your phone, it's not just a key to the scooters, it's really a key to the city, it brings everything in the city closer to you, it opens up new neighborhoods that you may not have gone to before and it makes the places you get to every day more fun to get to. for those of us who ride, life before scoot is sort of like life before mobile phones, once you have a short-cut to anywhere in the city in your pocket, you don't really want to go back, so we give you scoot, the world's first network of shared electric scooters and the perfect mode of transportation for the city that leads the world in what's

coming next. thank you. [applause]. >> alright.